Customer Profile

I have also created a customer profile for my brand, which defines my target market and who I an aiming my products towards.

The B Boutique customer is young at heart and typically aged between 18 – 30 years old. She is an avid High Street shopper, who welcomes refreshing and exclusive printed designs. She has a strong attraction to colour and embraces print design as an expression of her personality, by making confident purchases from the B Boutique collection.

Mission Statement

I have written a mission statement for my B Boutique brand, as a way of defining and clearly placing my brand in the fashion market.

B Boutique is a brand that brings individual and fashion-forward prints to the high street customer, within wearable and accessible designs. B Boutique offers a fresh and fun collection of printed fashion pieces for the customer who embraces bold colour and statement prints.

Pattern, print and colour are key features to B Boutique and each print is uniquely designed and exclusive to B Boutique. The quality of fabrics and use of the latest digital printing technology places B Boutique at slightly higher price points than other High Street brands, creating a more aspirational boutique brand.

Final top designs

As you may notice, my final top designs have changed direction from my development as they don't have any panels! The reasoning behind this decision and the selection of my final top designs includes several factors.

Since developing the panelled top designs, I have received my print samples back from Fabpad. I was really impressed with the quality and overall look of the prints and realised it would be quite a challenge to choose just several of them to be used in my finished garments. Initially I was worried that my prints may be too overpowering for a whole garment, however having seen them translated onto fabric and also with guidance from my tutors I have decided to take more of a creative risk by making my prints an all over design, which actually shows them off to a better effect. I also discovered that making tops with curved panels may be quite a challenge for an amateur maker like myself; therefore the panel idea has been abandoned.

To get around the fact of only being able to use a small selection of prints in a four top range, I was given the idea of having several prints combined on one garment. Initially I had my reservations about this, as I thought it might be overkill and would take the prints out of my safe comfort zone and make them less appealing to my target audience. However, I have decided that I need to challenge this idea and so have created a chequered and striped print using a mish mash of several prints, which achieves a more innovative and creative print statement. I have also used a large scale print and placement print for the other two tops as they add variation and give a balance to the range of printed top designs. 

Final logo design

After getting feedback from a number of people that are within my brand's target audience, I have decided to go with this design as my final B Boutique logo. From listening to people's opinions, I chose this design as it creates a strong statement with the bold use of text which is easy to read and recognise, either from a distance or close up. I also prefer the clean lines of this logo and the block colours create a simplistic and sharp, fashionable aesthetic.

Brand logo experiments

Now that I have my brand name, B Boutique, I need to create a logo to represent my brand's name and identity. Here are variety of experiments I have tried using different fonts and typography layouts. I have decided to stick with the same colour palette as my print range to create cohesion and I have also incorporated some of my prints into the actual text of the logo. Overall, I like how the emphasis of these logos is on the B, however I am aware not to loose the Boutique within the logo.

Branding: Brand name

Now that my prints are taking shape, I need to focus on the identity of my fashion prints and products by creating a brand that they can be recognised and established through. I have already established through my learning agreement that I want to aim my print range at the younger, contemporary end of the high street market, therefore I need to create a brand which reflects this and also expresses my identity as a print designer.
First things first, I need to create a name for my brand. Alot of print designers just use their name as their brand identity, however I feel this is quite boring and unimaginative. However, I have decided to keep an element of my name within my brand name, as a way of representing myself. I am often nicknamed 'B' by my friends and thought this could be a good starting point for a brand name as it also has the double meaning, 'Be' which could be the first part of a statement for something. This is a list of names I came up with:

• B spirit
• B unique
• B appeal
• B seen
• B wear
• B fresh
• B something

I like the statement these name make, however I don't feel they really relate or connect to my fashion brand. After going back to the drawing board, I have decided to go with the name, 'B Boutique'. I feel this name encompasses me and my fashion brand, as it stands for both, 'Beth's Boutique' but also, 'Be Boutique' a statement promoting the identity of my small unique and specialised range of fashion prints and products.

Panelled tops development

Since confirming my final colour palette and print range, I have started concentrating on developing my products, in particular the use of panels within the designs. I have decided to focus on a collection of printed panelled tops as my final outcome. I have come to this decision based on the fact that I am going to have to make my garments using my very limited knowledge and skill of garment construction. I feel a range of tops is the easiest place to start and is also a popular and fitting garment to display my prints, as a simple garment design wont distract from the overall print. These experiments show a variety of panel and print combinations, and will aid my decision in choosing which prints/panels work best together and should be taken forward to the final product range.

Final print range

Here are my print designs in my new colour palette. I feel these colour combinations give my prints a fresh and vibrant image and elevates them into fashion print range that would work well in a spring/summer product collection. I am pleased with the variation of prints, as there is a range of small scale repeat prints through to larger scale plaemnt prints. I am now in the process of sending these prints off to Fabpad, a company which will digitally print these print samples onto fabric. I am excited to see how my prints will translate onto fabric, and it should help me decide which prints I will use in my final outcome.

Panelled tops experiments

I have been busy developing my print designs on Illustrator since I was last on here. I have decided to use the line drawings of the shells, etc as a starting point for my range of print designs. My print designs have developed quite a lot and I have started to create a style and look which I feel will define my prints. I am liking the effect of the clean and simple line illustrations layered in a variety of colours on top of a bold background colour. This way I feel the detail in the line drawings aren't lost and the overall print doesn't look too busy.

At the moment the biggest trouble I am having is trying to define a colour palette. I love combining and using a variety of colour and shades, although I am going to have to think about creating a defined colour palette in order to create a more cohesive print range and one that is more fashion lead, as some of the colour combinations do lend themselves more to interiors at the moment.

As you can see, I have also been experimenting with how my prints would look on a garment and simultaneously the use of printed panels within the garment. My idea behind the panels was that I could possibly make my prints more wearable and appealing to the mass market, as I wasn't sure if giant shells covering an entire garment might be too much for the average high street consumer. The panels also add an extra design detail to the garment, enhancing the unique designs.

Emma Cook for Topshop

I came across these designer edition t-shirts on the Topshop website. Even though the placement prints on these t-shirts are just black and white line drawings, they do still create a striking effect which I think is helped by placing a thicker line around the edge of the image.

However what really struck me was the cool coat hanger designs, which are made out of card and incorporate the illustrative prints into the shape of the hanger. These hangers really help to make a statement of the print, and adds overall value to the product when the packaging has been created with this much care and attention. This is an excellently createive way of extending a print design and estalishing the brand of the product, and has got me thinking about designing my own coat hangers for displaying my printed garments.

                                                                                                  

Placement print ideas

I have started experimenting with some placement print ideas, using my illustrations to see how well they translate. As my line illustrations are quite simple and clean, I have added layers of my illustrations around a larger central image to create more variety and interest for the eye. I have also added a background layer of some paper marbling to the inside of some of the line drawings to add another dimension and replicate the textured look of an actual shell. Although I think my line drawings work well for repeat prints they don't seem to have enough impact for a placement print, so for the meantime its back to the drawing board with these.

First Print Experiments

These are my first repeat print experiments, and as this process is all new to me you can see I still have a long way to go!

Initially, I just wanted to do some experiments of how the repetition in Illustrator works. I have found out that prints are created using a tile with an image in which is then repeated in all directions. I have learnt that the spacing of images inside a tile is very important; the more complex the better, otherwise the print comes out in lines and makes the tile image very obvious. Clearly this has happened in my case, although it is best avoided, but I think this will come with practise and confidence when creating print tiles. I have also started playing with colour combinations, background colours, layering images and scale of images. I like how the light colours stand out on a darker background, which creates the most eye catching effect.

Using Illustrator

These images have been developed using the Adobe program Illustrator, which is used in industry when creating print designs. All the images originated from drawings and sketches I have worked on from first hand recordings and reference books. To create these effects I have scanned my drawings into Illustrator, and then used the 'live trace' tool to create the different colour combinations and effects.

This is my first experimental use of using Illustrator, and although they aren't actual prints, I wanted to see how my illustrations would translate and could be manipulated in a digital program. I like the freedom and control of creating your own colour combinations, however I think for now I will only progress with the line drawn images, as I think the others are too full on to create into repeat prints.

Bournemouth Oceanarium: Primary Research

As part of my primary research, I have decided to take a visit to Bournemouth Oceanarium to get a detailed and firsthand look at underwater life. This visit has been a great source of inspiration and I have been able to get some good recordings of a variety of sea life; that is when they weren't swimming around too fast of course!

Learning Agreement

Now that I have the theme for my print designs in place, I have written a synopsis of what this project is going to entail and the direction I intend to take.

For my Major Project, I am interested in exploring the processes of fashion fabric prints; especially the creative aspects such as colour combinations, fabric manipulation and experimenting with scale and repeat prints. I believe that I have the qualities required for creating successful fashion prints, such as a strong eye for colour and knowledge of the computer software, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop which are used at industry level. 

For this unit, I plan to develop these skills within the process of print design, and also gain a wider range of technical skills for translating my print designs onto fabric, such as screen printing and digital printing. In order to create a range of fashion prints, I intend to take my inspiration from underwater life as this reflects my personal design philosophy which focuses on the beauty and diversity of colour throughout nature. Primary research will generate the starting point for my print designs, from which I plan to experiment with incorporating my own illustrations and artwork into print ideas.

To make sure my print designs are successful and relevant to the current fashion industry, I will need to explore existing and future print trends and designers. I am most interested in targeting my print designs to the younger, contemporary end of the high street market, as I feel my personal design aesthetic is more suited to the commercial and less conceptual sector of the fashion industry. Throughout this project, I intend to produce a body of work which will effectively promote and present my print designs in a clear and professional format.